About Elliat Creative
Elliat Graney-Saucke
CURRENT
Film | Boys on the Inside feature documentary
Book | Innovate Heritage research initiative
Conference + publication forthcoming (Berlin/Rome/Seattle)
Faculty | Ethics of Storytelling course
Communication Leadership Masters, University of Washington
Facilitator | Change Leader Institute
Washington State Arts Commission
EDUCATION
STORYTELLER
Elliat began an education in video production in 1998 through the Evergreen State College. Moving from photography, animation and experimental video, Elliat began production of their first international feature documentary film at age 21, premiering at the British Film Institute’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2009.
Going on to tour work in 13 countries, Elliat has generated 20+ short films and over 100 media segments for clients. Elliat has produced media in the US, Germany, Denmark, England, Poland, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Canada and Israel/Palestine.
Elliat is currently completing their second feature documentary film Boys on the Inside about three Latinx butch and transmasculine individuals who have experienced incarceration in Washington State, 16 years in the making.
Elliat has been an educational instructor and creative leadership coach in storytelling, ethics, leadership and media production at various institutions, including the University of Washington, Washington State Arts Commission and the Northwest Film Forum.
Story themes have included:
Creative maker profiles
Small business values
Creative economy
LGBTQI culture
Youth empowerment
Rural community building
Japanese internment camps
Jewish Holocaust
US cultural policy
Racial equity and justice
Childhood abuse and trauma
UN international diplomacy
Disability rights
Incarceration and prisons
Immigration
CURATOR | ORGANIZER
Getting involved in organizing international cultural events began for Elliat in 1999 in Olympia, WA with music festivals such as Lady Fest and Homo-a-gogo. In 2003, Elliat founded Seattle’s The Bend-It Extravaganza which ran for 9 years, a free 3-day music and arts festival for queer young people.
After moving to Berlin, Germany, Elliat took on an organizational role with Copenhagen Queer Festival for 6 years, supported the archive of Queer Zagreb and founding Berlin’s Femme Hive Conference and the Special Friends Cabaret.
In 2014, Elliat Co-Founded Innovate Heritage with Caterina Benincasa (IT) in Berlin, an international transdisciplinary academic arts conference, bringing together contemporary artists, heritage practitioners and scholars for a livestreamed gathering represented 45+ countries. In 2024, Innovate Heritage has it’s Ten Years Later retrospective conference in Rome, Italy.
After returning to Seattle, WA, Elliat became the Executive Director of Seattle Documentary Association and in 2019 restarted their regional industry gathering DocForest. The gathering took place in Leavenworth, WA and centered geographic and racial equity, supported by the Washington State Film Commissioner and the Wenatchee Tribe.
50+ organizational partnerships have included:
German Commission for UNESCO
British Council
Brandenburg University of Technology
Center for Art and Urbanism
Oriental Heritage Without Borders
Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Washington State Film Commission
The Wenachi Tribe
Seattle International Film Festival
Pacific Northwest focused organizing:
DocForest film industry event
The Bend-It Extravaganza young queer arts festival
Homo-a-gogo music festival
The Transfused rock opera
Ladyfest music festival
European based organizing:
Innovate Heritage: Conversations between Arts and Heritage
Femme Hive: Berlin Queer Feminine Konferenz
IETM Athens Plenary Meeting (Belgium/Greece)
archive for Queer Zagreb
LEADERSHIP
Managing organizations, cultural gatherings and multi-year media productions, Elliat has oversaw $100k-$25k project budgets with 15+ team members. Elliat’s organizational leadership has encompassed 500+ membership bodies as well as small community and industry specific cohorts.
Elliat has built a wide range of projects from the group up, including managing teams, establishing infrastructure, internal and external communications, marketing, organizational partnerships, programming, budgeting, logistics and more. Leadership roles have included roles as Executive Director at Seattle Documentary Association, Documentation Research Lead at the National Performance Network and Project & Communications Manager at Pat Graney Company, as well as serving on various committees including the Washington State Film Leadership Council.
Elliat’s leadership focused educational instruction, centering ethics and racial equity, has included Inspire Washington‘s Cultural Congress Arts Leadership training, 4Culture‘s Artists Up Coaching and founding Seattle Documentary Association‘s SeaDoc Cohort program. Currently, Elliat is a facilitator / instructor of the White Bodied Caucus, Ethics of Storytelling at the University of Washington and the Change Leader Institute with the Washington State Arts Commission.
Leadership roles have included:
Media Producer
Creative Director
Executive Director
Production Manager
Communications Manager
Program Manager
Reseach Lead
Festival Director
Leadership Trainer/Coach
Board President
Panel Facilitator
Project Founder
Publication Editor
Organizational Affiliations: